Today’s arguments may be noisier and stupider and wronger and half fake, but they don’t seem much different to me. From October 10, 1990. – JDW
“It’s not the word that’s important, it’s the right to say any word you want to and to form any sentence you want to, that’s the point and once they start to legally restrict what we can say and what we can’t say then we are on a slippery slope to authoritarianism.”
“We’re talking about racists,” said Karen.
“No one should be allowed to be racist,” said Mark.
“But that’s not down to the Government or the courts,” said Rob desperately, “that should be down to us, we should make it difficult for people to be racist, we should frown upon such language and activity, it should be by peer pressure that we stop people from being abusive and unpleasant, not down to the Government.”
“Why not?” demanded Karen, “they make the laws so it’s down to them to make the punishments.”
“It’s not about punishment,” pressed Rob, “it’s about morality and social conscience, it’s about standing up for what’s right versus moral laziness, it’s about courage versus cowardice.”
― Arun D. Ellis, Daydream Believers.
ROB IS RIGHT.
Chapter One. “Hey, lady, a bad haircut doesn’t mean you qualify to park there.” You’d think a man who could say that to an imperfect stranger – an able-bodied woman parking in a handicapped zone – a guy like that wouldn’t have any trouble on “Town Hall.”
Seems strange to appear on television. TV is something I normally watch, not something I actually do.
So, when the lights blazed and the monitors displayed an image just like that in my mirror and Jack Faust – looks exactly like a successful local attorney – bounced onto the set and asked who wanted to introduce themselves.
I chose anonymity. On both sides of me, hands shot up.
On the left was the arts community. Critics. Museum directors. Lesbian painters. Gay writers. Atheists.
On my right, coincidentally, were the censorship advocates. Concerned Citizens for Velvet Elvis Paintings. Telemarketers For A Saner Society. Mothers Against Dirty Dancing.
Good people on both sides.
Tonight’s topic is “Art or Obscenity?” The producers are expecting a difference of opinion. What they get is a quasi-intellectual brawl that serves no purpose other than to demonstrate how intolerant each side is of the other.
People watching “Town Hall” at home may have had their minds changed. But, boy howdy, those folks in the studio were set in stone.
Maybe you watched the show. Funding for the National Endowment for the Arts was the principal topic.
Should government dollars be spent on art that is objectionable to a large percentage of the public?
Should taxes be spent on “smut?”
Let me cut through the bullshit. For the people on my left, the issue is about freedom of expression and the inherent value of art.
On my right, they started off the hour by attacking the controversial, supposedly obscene, art as anti-American. When that argument failed, they switched tactics (during a commercial) and started to claim they were only being fiscally responsible. Our government has better uses for the dollars.
As I listened quietly to the debate, soon became clear many people have little, if any, understanding of art’s contribution to their lives. Art is not a frill nor a luxury item. It’s not limited to well-to-do museum goers and opera lovers.
Art is not the first place we should look to cut back when the school measure fails. ART IS IMPORTANT. Trust me on this.
Jack Faust asked, “What is the artist’s responsibility?”
Not hearing the best answer, I finally raised my hand. He ignored me. I waved it higher. He ignored me still.
Faust moved to the next question. I kept my hand high in the air. Because I know the right answer. The Responsibility Of The Artist Is To Tell The Truth.
Not to paint a pretty picture, not to tell what we want to hear, not to present an image we can find agreeable.
Art is truth. And if it’s not, if it’s false or phony, then it’s something else. It might even be obscene.
Chapter Two.
As park of Banned Books Week, Charles Hinkle spoke at the Indigo Gallery in Lake Oswego. Hinkle is the state’s leading authority on censorship. By the way, one hundred and two (102) books banned or challenged in the entire United States last year, twenty-five (25) were confronted right here in Oregon.
“Simply put,” Hinkle explained, “the powerful are trying to suppress ideas expressed by the powerless.”
“What censors are trying to do is make us more like them,” noted Hinkle. “I would feel much better about advocates of censorship if just once I heard a censor say, “Limit what I can read. Suppress my access to ideas.”
Chapter Three.
There’s a new memorial in Waterfront Park, just north of the Burnside Bridge. It’s dedicated to the 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were forced to live in internment camps.
The year was 1942 and our government decided those of us with Japanese ancestry could not be trusted. German-Americans were not rounded up.
Japanese-Americans were powerless against the powerful. They weren’t enough like us during World War II. Rather than defund their artists or ban their books, we decided where they could live. In remote inland areas of the West.
We were wrong then and we know it now. Congress will soon send $20,000 tax-free checks to each of the surviving Japanese-Americans interned. Probably not enough.
President Bush will sign a letter of apology. Probably not enough.
And in Portland, we can walk through a riverside rock garden, examine the monuments, and pause for reflection.
And pray it never happens again. Especially not to you or me or our own families. Right?
Epilogue.
This country was founded on the democratic principles of individual freedoms.
And that includes the freedom to be different.
Let’s just hope Justice Souter agrees with me.
Multiples of a single digit squared.